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High-Tech Gravel Driveways?

Karl_in_NY | Posted in General Discussion on October 10, 2010 02:20am

I’m considering a gravel driveway as an alternative to asphalt for a new rural home.  First of all the climate:  Northern NY. 

I have seen the hype of several manufacturers promoting structural plastic grids for either gravel driveways, or grass driveways…GravelPave2 and EcoGrid are two of the most prolific advertisers of these products.

Has anyone here personally installed a gravel driveway using these or similar products?  If so, what have been your experiences?  Of course, I’m most interested in hearing from folks who live in a similar climate as me, as I think temperatures (think brittleness), snow plowing (think snagging) and frost (think heaving) maybe serious concerns.

I’m a virgin member here, so be gentle…

[But, I’ve been a FHB subscriber since their second year!]

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Replies

  1. junkhound | Oct 10, 2010 06:10pm | #1

    How long a driveway?? At $110/yard, you can lay diy concrete in 2 24" wide strips with a green center for about 100 yard for $1500. Unless I wuz really poor, I'd do the diy concrete route over crushed rock. You could do say 40 ft per weekend during the spring/summer/fall. From what I saw on the net for the products you descripe, diy concrete is about 1/2 the price of gravelpave2 - given that either needs a sub-base.

    PS: If ya got a 500 ft long drive, the cost savings for diy concrete will leave you with enough $$ for a decent used tractor!

    1. davidmeiland | Oct 10, 2010 06:17pm | #2

      We got

      miles and miles of county roads that are unpaved, and miles more of driveways and whatnot.... all gravel, the better ones might have some landscape fabric buried in there somewhere... but none 'o that plastic stuff.

  2. tom21769 | Oct 10, 2010 07:36pm | #3

    Gravel is about as low-tech as it gets.   But for my money, gravel generally makes not only the cheapest but also the best looking driveway for a rural home.

    1. DanH | Oct 10, 2010 08:33pm | #5

      Nah, the best rural driveway is old concrete silo staves.

      1. calvin | Oct 10, 2010 10:01pm | #6

        Nah, the best rural driveway is old concrete silo staves.

        You're not too far off on that idea.

        Here in the old Great Black Swamp, the early road from Columbus up to the Great Lake Erie was made of logs, laid side by side, a corrigated road.

        But those too, sunk in the mud.

        When they do road construction now in that area, they sometimes turn up some of these old logs.

        When they finally figured you couldn't exist under the swamp conditions, someone decided the best way would be to drain it.

        1. Karl_in_NY | Oct 11, 2010 02:57pm | #7

          Jeez...lots of pretty-much off-topic replies.

          My gravel driveway will only be about 200' long, and yes, esthetics are most important, hence my desire to avoid concrete or asphalt, to preserve the rural waterfront look of the building lot.

          I'm really seeking comments from folks who have actually used any of the various plastic grids marketed to stabilize and reduce annual maintenance of gravel driveways, especially in a Northern climate.

          I'm aware of conventional gravel driveway construction (and even pave/seal macadam), but my focus is presently upon plastic grid experiences.

          Thanks-

          1. calvin | Oct 11, 2010 04:35pm | #8

            Off Topic?

            Surely you jest.

            Nothing is off the table topic wise at sites such as this.  Further, it serves to bump your original post up the ladder which might just catch the eye of someone that may have in fact used this plastic stuff of which you speak.

            Best of luck.

          2. junkhound | Oct 12, 2010 04:45pm | #12

            desire to avoid concrete

            yuppie dink?

          3. junkhound | Oct 15, 2010 08:45pm | #15

            "esthetics are most important" -- well, that leaves out the old 3-tab roofing tear offs, dont it ?

            'focus is presently upon plastic grid experiences'

            if that stuff really rings your bell and you have lots of $$ to get rid of, you can send some of the $$ to any of us ya want.

  3. calvin | Oct 10, 2010 07:47pm | #4

    Welcome to BT.............

    2nd year?  what happened?  You missed the best yr in print.

    I have a low tech drive-slightly downhill here in NW Oh.  At almost 500 ft long, a no brainer for me-I didn't consider a paved roadway.

    Our soil type-Clay-the swallowing kind.  20 yrs ago I put in a base of 1-1/2 stone to start.  Followed that with a dressing of 57's (3/4" mixed).  Cherried it out after a yr and a half of construction.  About 8 yrs later I laid a topping of small berm on the advice of an excavator - "you'll want to get a layer of something that won't sink in".  It worked, packed up a bit tighter.

    Since, about every 5 yrs I top again with the small berm.  It's subject to a bit of washout (not away, but will get pushed to the side) during a 2" deluge, but a minor rake it back and we're good as new.  This grading out costs me about 350.00, and at every five yrs I don't think it excessive. 

    Downside, small stone sticks in deep lug shoe soles-no problem with our full downstairs of tile-but I need to be careful going into a customers home with hardwood.

    So, no frost heave here, I would think with a good stone base and adequate drainage you'd maybe be alright in that system.  Is this grid idea to hold the stone? keeping it from washout?  How much hill or tipped grade do you have?

    I know from experience that larger stone gets pushed around, rather than staying put.  Here, it gets swallowed up by oozing clay if it doesn't get pushed off to the side.

    Plowing of course can cause some havoc with a stone drive.  You end up with it in your grass or woods.  Might help to be able to have a drop zone where you can laet the snow sit and melt, eventually leaving you some stone to re=grade with.  Or, set the skids on your plow to "skim " the surface.

    Best of luck.

  4. [email protected] | Oct 12, 2010 02:52pm | #9

    Eco grid

    I've installed a product similar to ecogrid, years ago in Las Vegas.  It was used in a grass landscaped area, to allow access for heavy trucks into an electrical substation on an infrequent basis.  And, it worked well enough, to prevent rutting of the grass.  So far as I know it was left in place when they xeriscaped the site, and just covered with colored gravel mulch. 

    I'm not sure the cost of either of them is justified on a rural driveway.  Unless you have money that is just burning holes in your pocket, I would recomend just trying a gravel drive without any of the "fancy" options.  At least until you know you need something more, because the old standard methods have failed.  As some of the others have said, you could buy a good used tractor, and clean it up every spring for less than these products will cost.  Plus the tractor is handy for snow plowing. 

  5. runnerguy | Oct 12, 2010 03:17pm | #10

    Gravel drives and snow are always a problem. In one house I lived in it had a quarter mile long gravel drive and over the years I got very good at getting the snow off without getting the gravel off (We had a Ford 1720 tractor with a 6' blade). Got so that in the spring I'd spend just 15 minutes with a leaf rake cleaning up a few spots of gravel that wound up on the lawn.

    Oh, and a suggestion; Since you're "rural" and your driveway is long, before the first snow go out and set stakes down one side of the drive about 20 yards apart, closer at bends. My first year I peeled up 80' of sod from the lawn.

    Doug

  6. caseyr | Oct 12, 2010 04:20pm | #11

    I am also contemplating a drive way on semi-rural property.  Mine would be about 175 feet.  Where I am along the Columbia River in Oregon, there are rather strict requirements to allow fire equipment access to any buildings on the driveway.  IIRC, the code calls for something like a 6" gravel base unless tests indicate sufficient bearing strength.  Since much of my area is a basalt ledge or gravel washed in from the ancient Missoula flood, I am hoping to avoid hauling in additional tons of gravel. 

    Two ideas that I have wondered about, however.  Years ago, a couple of my students were playing around with what they called "dirtcrete", which was some Portland Cement worked into the top couple of inches of soil.  I don't recall how much cement they used per square yard or just how they worked it into the soil, but they claimed it increased the bearing capacity of the soil by quite a bit.  Someone else has taken up the name "Dirtcrete" for a commercial product that is different from what my students were doing, thus I was able to get no additional information on the process from my Google searches. 

    The other idea was something suggested on the old Breaktime, possibly by Splintergroupie, of using old synthetic carpet as an underlayment of the road bed.  I have some old carpet and may use it as the initial layer under the gravel of a section of the driveway that will be over more normal soil. 

    We are also required to have a road bed of 12' width with a total clear width of 20' for the fire trucks to get up the driveway.  There are also requirements for the minimum curve radius of the driveway as well as a fairly large area required for turning the fire truck around at the end of any driveway over 150' long.  You may want to check with local authorities to see whether you have similar requirements.  Would be a shame to have the fire trucks sitting on the road watching your house burn because they couldn't negotiate your driveway. 

    1. User avater
      coonass | Oct 12, 2010 05:55pm | #13

      Casey,

      Google "soil cement" instead of dirtcrete. We get loads dry concrete from the local river mat plant to use as a base.

      It does increase the bearing capacity by quite a bit. The local roads are built like this also.

      KK

  7. User avater
    hammer1 | Oct 15, 2010 08:32pm | #14

    The freeze thaw cycles in the northeast lift and push things around. If a grid gets lifted, the plow may pull it up. I've been using RAP (reclaimed asphalt paving) instead of gravel. It is available in different screened sizes. I just used 9/16" on my drive and am impressed. It packs nicely, no dust, no loose stones, a bit water resistant, stable, inexpensive, easy to work with. The towns and state are using it for paved road shoulders in a larger size. It can also be used as an aggregate for new asphalt but we are using it dry as a replacement for gravel. Charcoal grey in color that bleaches to a lighter grey.

  8. User avater
    aimless | Oct 15, 2010 09:52pm | #16

    Looked into them some years ago

    At the time, I thought the main purpose of these plastic grids was to protect what was underneath. For example you could park on it without damaging tree roots from soil compression. This is something that a plain gravel drive is unable to do and of course concrete doesn't let the water through. Is that why you are looking for info on it?

     But it has been years since I looked into and I'm too lazy to look now.

  9. vitempest | May 31, 2014 07:09am | #17

    Gravelpave2

    So, did you end up using this product? What is your experience?

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